MARGAO
Check-in on Tuesday evening and check out after the results are all out on Thursday evening on March 10. That’s the diktat issued to the Congress candidates as top party leaders went into a huddle with the party candidates from South Goa on Monday.
Not taking any chances this time around, the candidates have been told to all check in at a hotel in North Goa, on the outskirts of the state capital on Tuesday evening. They will be all holed up in the hotel till Thursday evening and depending on the election results, the candidates will all head to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.
Congress top leaders, Goa election observer P Chidambaram and desk in-charge, Dinesh Gundu Rao reassured party candidates the party will not repeat the 2017 mistake in 2022, promising to move swiftly to the Governor once election results are out on Thursday.
With concerns being raised in many quarters over poaching of party MLAs elect, sources said the candidates will not go to the counting centres at North and South Goa. Instead, their election agents will hold the fort for them at the counting centres.
Both Chidambaram and Dinesh Gundu Rao assessed the prospects of the individual candidates at the meeting which took place at the South Goa district Congress office, which was attended by Opposition Leader Digambar Kamat.
When the media sought to know from Chidambaram whether there’s any good news as he arrived at the South district office for the meeting with party candidates, he shot back asking the media to tell the good news.
In a lighter vein, Chidambaram said he is not only having a meeting with the candidates, but winning candidates as he and Dinesh Gundu Rao took the elevator to the district office located on the fifth floor of the building.
In a sheer coincidence, most of the candidates, besides the two observers were attired in white costumes. Besides Chidambaram and Rao, GPCC vice-president M K Sheikh and Opposition leader Digambar Kamat, it was a sheer coincidence that most of the candidates were attired in white shirts as they walked into the district Congress building for the meeting with the party observers.
